Windows XP is on its last legs

On April 8, Windows XP will reach its end of life after a nearly 13-year run, and Microsoft will discontinue support for the PC operating system. The software giant even has a dedicated page on its website with a countdown ticker and information on effects of the upcoming expiration.

Many might ask: So what? Who would still be running a 12-year-old operating system? More than you probably think. Windows XP has the second largest desktop operating system install base in the world, behind only Windows 7. It is a fairly significant share, too — nearly 30 percent of the desktop market, according to web analytics and market research firm Net Applications.


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A leap to the cloud requires commitment, preparation

If your company still hasn’t put critical applications and data on the cloud, 2014 should be the year. At the very least, your organization should be discussing a migration strategy and timeline.

Cloud computing provides smaller companies a way to level the playing field with larger competitors. Companies no longer need significant investments in data centers with advanced computing infrastructure. Instead, the cloud allows them to acquire information technology as they need it.

But the transition typically isn’t easy. The cloud is still relatively new and even the most mature providers have limitations. So here are a few cautions when developing your migration strategy.

Know your provider

First of all, be sure you know the provider’s capabilities and responsibilities. A client assessment I performed highlights the importance of knowing a provider’s capabilities and responsibilities.

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Improve communication with IT, even if you don’t speak geek

How do you communicate with IT if you don’t speak geek?

Anyone who’s called technical support knows that communicating with computer technicians can be intimidating and frustrating. I got a taste of this on my first day as team lead of an outsourced IT department. After I took the staff to lunch to get acquainted, the conversation quickly steered to “Star Wars.”

Now I enjoy “Star Wars” as much as the next guy, but the conversation wasn’t a simple debate on the superior trilogy (original or prequel). The topic was on light-sabers, and specifically the origin of each light-saber’s color.

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How do small organizations capitalize on "Big Data"?

Overview

The big box stores like Wal-Mart and online retailers like Amazon have been leveraging "Big Data" for years, but they have millions of customers and hundreds of thousands of transactions a week. How can small organizations hope to tap into Big Data when they don't hit a hundred thousand transactions in a year? The answer is while smaller organizations likely won't achieve the Big Data capabilities of their larger counter parts, it doesn't mean they still shouldn't travel the path.

Big Data, much like "The Cloud", is an industry buzz term comparable to large scale Business Intelligence. Gartner defines Big Data as "high-volume, high-velocity and high-variety information assets that demand cost-effective, innovative forms of information processing for enhanced insight and decision making.".

Plotting points on a graph helps to conceptualize the high-volume of Big Data. If you have two points on a graph, A and B, a straight line is drawn and an assumption is made the line will continue its trend after point B.

How small business CFOs bridge the IT GAAP

Overview

A joint survey completed in 2011 by Gartner and the Financial Executives Research Foundation found that 42% of IT organizations report directly to the CFO. This number quickly jumps to 60% for smaller businesses with revenues between $50 million and $250 million. Addressing the communication, cultural and professional problems that arise from this reporting structure is difficult even for large corporate enterprises. Several articles offer advice to CFOs and CIOs on tackling this issue at the enterprise C-Level, but for small to middle market companies lacking an IT executive, this reporting structure should be approached differently due to both human and financial resource constraints.

Your IT Department's Dirty Little Secret

When you access your organization's applications such as email or financials, or use a service such as the Internet or printing, there is a lot of technology you don't see underneath. This technology is a complex stack of hardware and software working together to establish the infrastructure and platform layers, which are required to run your organization's applications and services. The infrastructure and platform layers are rapidly moving towards commoditization, and you've probably heard the terms describing this movement, including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS).

For many small and midsized organizations this commoditization movement is your IT department's dirty little secret.

Why does IT miss getting IT right?

Sally Sue has put in five requests (3 emails, 1 phone call and 1 request passing the IT Manager in the hall) over a 3 week period to fix her desktop that crashes each time she opens her accounting application. Her issue is not a lack of response or attention from IT. Each time she has submitted a request the help desk has responded and fixed her desktop using a variety of methods such as a reinstall of the application or a reboot of her machine. Her issue is the reoccurrence of the incidents, because no one has fixed the problem.

Overview

 IT misses getting it right because they focus heavily on technical support, that is responding to the incident and addressing the incident, but fail to fix the problem. So how does IT get IT right? Through the implementation of programs that help achieve operational excellence. Operational excellence can only be achieved when the IT department executes across all three pillars of an IT environment, People, Process & Technology. Let's examine how IT typically misses within each of these 3 pillars.